Chapter 516: Unstoppable

After Danzhou was captured, there were only two small counties, Lingao and Chengmai, between here and the capital of Qiongzhou. According to the early reconnaissance, these two counties had limited troops and weak city defenses, which were not suitable for the coalition forces.

There is not much of a threat. Gao Qiaonan even issued a military order, and it only takes one hour to capture this small county with weak defenses.

The biggest difficulty facing the coalition forces is of course not the limited number and combat effectiveness of the garrison soldiers in Lingao County, but the sixty-mile distance from Danzhou City to Lingao County - this journey is almost

It is three times the distance from Danzhou Bay Baimajing Pier to Danzhou City.

It is indeed a bit unrealistic to fight a blitzkrieg that requires very high mobility under the primitive traffic conditions of this time and space with the equipment level of the seventeenth century. Even if the team led by Qian Tiandun passed by

Long-term rigorous training cannot change the fact that the mobility is insufficient. If the soldiers have to rely on their foot strength to conduct continuous long-distance attacks, their combat effectiveness will inevitably be greatly affected.

As a commander, Qian Tiandun naturally would not have thought of the stakes involved, but he had already had a solution. After entering the city, he immediately asked people to collect the cattle and horses in the city and collect them as transportation for the next move. Of course.

It is impossible to turn soldiers like the militia who have only received infantry training into cavalry immediately. Even if there are enough horses, they can only ride slowly.

The commerce department also made corresponding preparations for this. Just ten days before Operation Prairie Fire was launched, the Liaison Office in Danzhou and several Ming Dynasty commercial firms jointly trafficked a batch of pack horses from the mainland to Danzhou, saying that they planned to renovate the route from Danzhou to Danzhou.

The official roads leading to the capital from Lingao and Chengmai counties. For this reason, a large-scale horse farm was built outside the west gate to keep these hundreds of pack horses. Renovating the official roads certainly did not mean transporting these pack horses all the way to

The real purpose of Danzhou was that after the troops led by Qian Tiandun arrived, they immediately went to receive these pack horses.

Coupled with the cattle and horses collected from all over the city, the mobility of the militia army was finally guaranteed to a certain extent, and its short-distance delivery capability was several times higher than before. At least the main force did not have to run for the next section of the journey to the east.

Broken leg.

The operational plan formulated by the General Staff Department of the Military Commission starts from Danzhou, moves from west to east along Lingao and Chengmai, and finally removes Fucheng, the largest stronghold, to complete the actual control of the northern coast. In this operational plan

The biggest difficulty is not how to conquer the city and defeat the Ming army, but how to enable the Annan coalition forces to carry out combat missions to quickly maneuver between battlefields and ensure that the logistics supply of these thousands of people can keep up with the front-line troops.

The speed of advancement. And the only means of transportation that can be used at the moment are livestock.

The militia troops entering the city temporarily requisitioned all the restaurants in the city to prepare lunch for these thousands of troops. Of course, due to their current status as pirates, they will definitely not be paid for these meals and drinks. But other than that,

Qian Tiandun still strictly ordered all ministries not to break into people's homes at will, let alone randomly loot and harm innocent people, except for those who are clearly targeted for arrest.

Of course, there will always be some people who fish in troubled waters during wars, and Danzhou City is no exception. When the coalition forces entered the city to control various urban areas, they caught many people who took advantage of the chaos to steal or rob, and some of them even said that they did not want to live or die.

You can "share the accounts" with the coalition forces. For these guys who want money but not their lives, the officers who caught them were a little bit dumbfounded. After asking Qian Tiandun for instructions, all the guys who were caught trying to make money by making war were tied up in a long string.

Escorted to the seaside, what awaits them is a long career as a miner in the Black Tugang Coal Mine.

While the soldiers were dining, Qian Tiandun had people gather together some of the unofficial leading figures in the city, including local businessmen, great scholars from the academy, and some wealthy gentry. In order to ensure that after the large troops evacuated here, they could continue

To maintain effective control, Qian Tiandun believed that it was necessary to stabilize the emotions of these upper-level figures and let them help maintain social security and the turnover of daily necessities during this period. Of course, the most important thing was to give these people a face-to-face knock.

A wake-up call to let them give up some uneasy thoughts.

As Qian Tiandun, he was definitely not suitable to do this, so Zheng Ting was temporarily arrested and asked to vaccinate these locals. Zheng Ting did not refuse much, and he happily

He accepted this task. When he was protecting the Japanese army to regain southern Annam the previous year, Zheng Ting was also one of the generals who led the troops. He did a lot of this kind of thing at that time.

On the afternoon of October 3, just over two hours after Danzhou City was captured, the east gate of Danzhou City opened, and hundreds of horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts filed out of the city, heading northeast along the official road. The leading troops on horseback had already marched that night.

It is only about ten miles away from Lingao County, and the main force has already entered Lingao County.

Although Lingao County was not a difficult target, considering the efficiency of the operation, Qian Tiandun did not ask the tired team to launch an attack overnight, but arranged for the troops to set up camp in the wild to rest for the night.

The next morning, after a night's rest, the coalition forces seized control of the gate of Lingao County in almost the same way as the previous day. Then a large force swarmed up and occupied this small county. Compared with this "huge"

With the troops, the city's population of only about 2,000 people obviously could not afford to waste much money. During the siege, no one on the coalition side was killed, and only two of the Ming Guard troops defending the city were killed, and the others escaped.

He fled, surrendered, and did not encounter strong resistance. Lingaozhi County did not hold on like the magistrate of Danzhou, but simply slipped away through the gate at the other end when the city was broken.

However, this was not a time when you could just escape if you wanted to. The magistrate could only escape seven or eight miles before he was intercepted by an action team performing a blockade mission on the periphery.

After capturing Lingao County, the coalition forces began to divide into two groups, marching all the way to the southeast to attack Chengmai County. The other group went along the Wenlan River outside Lingao County to the seaside, where they would take the bus from Danzhou

The fleet that detoured from the bay went directly along the coastline to land near Fucheng.

The ones responsible for attacking Chengmai County were a thousand Annan guardsmen led by Zheng Ting and two companies of the Annan militia army. The Annan army was the main force, and the militia army was responsible for assisting. This was also the key to the entire operation.

The only battle in which the Annan Army was determined to be the main force. Therefore, Zheng Ting attached great importance to this and selected almost all veterans who performed well in last year's southern campaign.

On October 6, this force led by Zheng Ting arrived outside Chengmai County.

At this time, the news that pirates had landed near Danzhou on a large scale and captured Danzhou had reached Chengmai, and the tactic of sneak attack and grabbing the city gate was no longer feasible. Zheng Ting could only let his troops set up their positions.

We are actually preparing for a siege war.

There are not many guards stationed in Chengmai County, only 300 people, and there are still many vacancies among them. Zheng Ting is too lazy to do anything to persuade people to surrender. Anyway, he is here to train troops.

, if there is no fight, where will the effect of this training come from? Besides, Qian Tiandun also gave him full autonomy, as long as he does not kill innocent people indiscriminately on Chengmai's side. The militia groups of the two companies are actually

It plays the role of supervising the war.

Zheng Ting had received formal military training in Sanya and knew very well how to fight this kind of siege. Therefore, when he saw that the city gate of Chengmai County was closed, he immediately had the artillery dragged out. Even though it was only a few three-pounders and

A small six-pounder cannon, but it is more than enough to attack the gates of such a small county town.

After a few cannons were fired, the four-inch-thick city gate was knocked crookedly. Although it had not fallen down, it was already crumbling. Zheng Ting was not in a hurry to command his men and horses to rush up. Anyway, the ammunition consumption this time

All are provided by Haihan, and he doesn't need to care about the amount of ammunition consumed.

Several small cannons fired three more rounds, and after the city gate was completely knocked down, Zheng Ting calmly took out his command knife, waved forward and gave the order to attack. Although at this time there were still sporadic Ming troops coming from the city wall.

They stuck their heads out and tried to resist the attack with bows and arrows and old-fashioned matchlock guns, but these stubborn resisters were quickly named by several militia snipers standing more than 200 meters away with rifles.

Zheng Ting had also known before that Qian Tiandun had a group of sharpshooters who used a special kind of musket that could maintain extremely high hit accuracy from a hundred feet away, but this was the first time he saw these people take action on the battlefield. He couldn't help but

He asked the officer Haihan next to him: "What's the range of this rifle?"

The officer proudly replied: "If the rifle is properly adjusted and operated by an experienced hand, it can hit a target two feet in diameter from two miles away."

Zheng Ting couldn't help but take a breath when he heard this. The shooting range of this kind of shooting is almost further than that of artillery, and the hit accuracy is even more difficult for artillery to match - after the range exceeds one mile, the artillery's impact point control can basically only rely on luck.

With such a powerful weapon, if the two armies are facing each other, if the enemy is not prepared to directly shoot the generals in the formation, wouldn't it be an unsolvable strategy?

Zheng Ting thought for a while and then said: "If the weather is gloomy and it is difficult to see, or it is rainy, will it have any impact?"

"There must be some influence." The officer nodded, not intending to cover up this flaw, but before Zheng Ting could recover, he continued: "So in order to make up for this shortcoming, Chief Qian came up with the idea

We developed a tactic, the Phalanx."

"What is Phalanx?" Zheng Ting asked in confusion.

"The so-called Phalanx..." The officer pointed to the several snipers who were aiming their guns at the top of the city and said: "General Zheng, please see, the general tactics are mostly three or five snipers aiming at the target on the periphery.

Shooting, this tactic is very useful when the weather conditions are good, and the hit rate is quite high. But if the weather conditions are bad and it is not convenient to aim and shoot, then we will use another tactic, which is to concentrate more than ten snipers

, under the unified command of a commander, who determines the target and carries out concentrated strikes. The error of one gun can be made up by ten guns or more. Even if the error is not two feet but two feet, it will still have a huge impact.

The probability of hitting the target is high. We call this tactic Phalanx."

Zheng Ting was even more shocked after hearing this. This tactic is not only useful when the weather conditions are bad. In fact, this tactic can be used whenever hitting some important targets to ensure the hit rate. It is difficult.

Imagine what it would be like to be targeted from a distance by more than ten rifles like this. From such a long distance, you probably can't even feel the murderous intent of your opponent? Let alone make any predictions in advance.

While he was talking, the recalcitrant resisters on the top of the city had been cleared away, and Zheng Ting's troops rushed into the city like wolves and tigers. However, street fighting was obviously not the strong point of this army. It took almost an hour before there were any officers.

Report to Zheng Ting that Chengmai County has been fully controlled.

Zheng Ting frowned. Even excluding the task of snatching the city gate, this combat speed was far less than the performance of the Haihan Militia in Lingao County. Zheng Ting asked in a deep voice: "What are the casualties?"

The officer clasped his fists and lowered his head and responded: "Seven of our troops were killed, more than thirty were wounded, more than seventy of the enemy were killed, and more than two hundred were captured."

"How come there are so many casualties!" Zheng Ting couldn't help but scolded. The Haihan militia attacked Lingao County and captured the city without killing a single soldier. When it was his turn to attack Chengmai, the combat effect was unexpectedly...

There was such a huge difference. There was also Haihan's team supervising the battle, and Zheng Ting felt a little embarrassed.

"General, calm down, this incident was purely an accident." The officer quickly defended: "When we attacked the county government just now, we never thought that the other side would pour kerosene and other igniting materials in the county government office, and wait for our army to enter.

It was only set on fire after that, and as a result, several soldiers failed to escape in time and there were casualties. Except for those who died on the spot, all the arsonists were captured."

"What? Set a fire!" Zheng Ting couldn't sit still at all now: "Has the fire been put out?"

"The fire was very strong. There was only one deep well in the county government office and there was no way to lift water, so..." The officer also noticed Zheng Ting's anger, and his voice became softer and softer as he spoke, and finally he couldn't continue.

"They are just a bunch of trash!" Zheng Ting's mood was completely ruined. Qian Tiandun also specially greeted him, asking him to preserve all kinds of cultural and historical materials in the county government and not let the rebels destroy these things.

At that time, Zheng Ting even patted his chest and gave Qian Tiandun a guarantee, saying that he would definitely hand over Chengmai County to Haihan intact. However, only two days after the incident, it was already a slap in the face.

.The county government office has been burned down. When I see Qian Tiandun again, how should Zheng Ting give him orders?

"You are not losing the face of me, Zheng Ting, but you are losing the face of Annan's guardian, do you know!" Zheng Ting became furious and cursed the officer who came to report the news bloody.
Chapter completed!